Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Spinach Stretching

Happy Hump Day Y'all! It's already February which feels a little absurd but that's just how it goes. Things are going pretty well with me other than a small potato chip incident on Monday and of course, an over indulgent weekend. I'm not sweating it today. I didn't get to exercise as much as usual this weekend because I did something at 9 Round that preventing me from moving my neck and back for about three days. I was stressed about not working out but realized I needed to take care of my body. I'm back to my regularly scheduled soreness now so I've been burning calories like normal the past couple days.

While I do spend money on good quality groceries, I'm not rich so I try to find items on sale and I also try to stretch ingredients that I buy. I look for recipes that call for similar ingredients to ensure I don't have waste in food or money. This week's grocery list included spinach and reduced fat feta and I got two delicious recipes out of those ingredients. The first is a baked egg breakfast. I love a runny yolk and I've never achieved that when making baked eggs. I will check the eggs like five times and they will still be raw. After the last check, it seems like it takes less than 30 seconds for the yolk to be overdone. One day, I will perfect the runny yolk in a baked egg but until then, the over-hard version is tasty too. All you do is pre-heat the oven to 400 then wilt some spinach with water in a non-stick skillet. I didn't use any oil or spray for this and it only took 3-4 minutes. While it cooks, grab a small ramekin or casserole dish (I happen to have the perfect tiny purple dish), and spray it with non-stick spray. Take the wilted spinach and spread it evenly on the bottom of the dish. Add salt, pepper and garlic powder. Then crack two eggs on top of the spinach bed. Add salt and pepper to the eggs. Finally, top the spinach and eggs with around a quarter cup of crumbled, reduced fat feta cheese. Pop it in the oven anywhere from 15 minutes until the end of time depending on how you like your eggs. I was hungry so I found myself a bit impatient. Despite the lack of runny yolk, I loved this breakfast. The cooking process, eggs and cheese masked any sharpness from the spinach and it was filling. I like anything that has cheese.

The other recipe I made was a pretty, summer-like salad. The blueberries in a salad was an idea I saw on Pinterest. I've only recently gotten in to adding fruit to salad. I like strawberries because they add a tart tang to your salad. The blueberries are a bit sweeter but because I had a lot of salty elements in the salad, it provided a nice balance. All I did was lay out a bed of spinach, add sliced red onion, grilled chicken (that Ian so generously grilled for me), reduced fat feta cheese, a 100 calorie pack of almonds that I rough chopped, half a cup of blueberries and a few tablespoons of low fat Italian dressing. This was bright and filling (because of all the protein) and downright pretty. I love a giant, attractive salad for dinner.

Finally, I tried the last flavor of Halo Top I haven't tried in my freezer. I loved the lemon cake because of the balance of calories versus taste. I think that the peanut butter cup is the best flavor I've had so far but it costs you quite a few more calories. In this case, I think it's worth it. This flavor is creamy with actual streaks of peanut butter which are happy little treasures. I loved it. I want to try some of the other flavors soon, I just have to fit this expensive little treasure into my budget. It's not cheap!

Down 75!

Down 60!

Down 50!

Down 45!

Down 35!

Down 25!

Before

Current Before and After

Down Progression

About Me

I am what my Dad calls a healthy girl who is trying to be less...healthy? None of it makes sense but I am going to attempt to hash it all out here. I love my dog, my family and my friends. Seems silly to tell you much about myself since I will be telling you that sort of thing quite often.